All according to Mi Plan: How Alex Cuba changed Nelly Furtado life

Handout

Despite co-writing more than half the songs on Nelly Furtado&#8217;s latest record, Mi Plan, Alex Cuba says he still has to &#8220;push hard to make people believe that there can be a type of Cuban music that is not what they expect.&#8221;

Alex Cuba’s self-titled third album would be but another impressive step in his steadily rising career -- he won Junos for best world music album for each of his first two efforts -- were it not for his recent profile-catapulting coup: Cuba co-wrote more than half the songs on Nelly Furtado’s new Spanish-language album, Mi Plan.

It was a moment of serendipity, which Cuba never questioned; he simply went with it. He knew some of Furtado’s musicians -- guitarist James Bryan (Philosopher Kings, Prozzak) and percussionist Daniel Stone.

Furtado was looking for songwriting help on a track, and called him up.

“I said, ‘Yeah, send it to me. I’ll give it a shot,’ ” he recounted. “It ended up being the title track of the album. We got together five times from September [2008] to February and wrote nine songs. Seven ended up on the new album.

“We had the No. 1 song on Billboard’s Hot 100 Latin Songs for five weeks. It’s now been No. 2 for two weeks,” he says referring to another of their collaborations, Manos al Aire.

“It’s been charting for 13 weeks,” his manager Andres Mendoza added.

“We’re No. 1 in Italy, Germany, Latin America,” Cuba continued.

Though he wrote all the lyrics to the songs he worked on, the process was very collaborative, Cuba explained. He, Furtado and Bryan would jam, running ideas back and forth until they found something they liked and questions of who did what became irrelevant.

“She’s a hard worker,” Cuba said. “She was so excited, every minute. She’d say, 'Let’s meet tomorrow at nine at the studio.' She would be 20 minutes early with coffee for us, and cookies she had made the night before. And then she would get very excited and say, ‘I love the melody!’ James told me that when we made the demo for Manos al Aire, he had never seen Nelly more excited.”

Cuba met his future wife while touring Canada in 1995 as bassist for his father’s band. They married soon after, settling first in Cuba before moving to Victoria, B.C., in 1999 and Smithers, B.C. in 2003. They have two children.

From a small town himself, Cuba appreciates both his adoptive home and country, and what they have given him creatively.

“My music has changed as I have embraced what is today my identity,” he said, “which is a very open understanding of music ... I found [Canada] in the beginning very open. There was space to create something new. I still have to push hard to make people believe that there can be a type of Cuban music that is not what they expect.”

The sounds on Cuba’s new album range from reggae to funk, rock, soul and soft-sung ballads — all part of his expanding musical makeup, at the heart of which are his smooth singing voice, keen melodic instincts and the rhythmic swing of his homeland.

“My approach [with this album] was to create magic in the most organic way we could,” he said, “no programming, no synthesizers, everything being played live off the floor. ... I love the honesty in music, when you can create fantasy with literally nothing.”

• Alex Cuba is currently touring across Canada. Check myspace.com/alexcuba for listings.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.